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Julianna was still kneeling nearby and crying hysterically. But a moment later, at Thorne’s instigation, two Militia Warriors arrived and hauled her away, one on each arm. The trio vanished.
She would see prison time for doing harm against a fellow ascender.
* * *
Grace was trembling as she put one hand on Marguerite and one on Fiona. As the triad had proven during the spectacle event, touching wasn’t necessary, but right now that’s what Grace wanted. She was freaked; she needed to calm down.
But with the touch, the obsidian power rose, vibrating beneath all of them as they sat grouped around Casimir. She split-self, then jumped inside Fiona who, thank God, was waiting and ready.
The amplification of the healing power began, so that Fiona, possessed by Grace, turned and held her arms above Casimir. He was unconscious now, his body still. Grace felt little life in him—but if ever a power had been designed to do the impossible, obsidian flame was that power.
Healing flowed not in gentle waves, but in massive dips and swells so that Casimir’s body floated above the patio pavers. The smell of burned flesh disappeared first. Then Grace watched the organs re-form and the skin knit together. She remembered her own healing in Leto’s cabin, how swift it was because of Fiona’s ability to enhance a power.
Barely a minute later, Casimir’s eyes opened and he rose to his feet. He stared at his hands and fingers. He felt his stomach. He said something, but she couldn’t quite hear him.
“Casimir, what did you say?”
He turned to her. “Patience.”
Grace shook her head. She wasn’t sure what he meant, but then his eyes were wide. He was still in shock. Suddenly he grabbed her and held on to her. She felt that he was weeping.
Leto moved to look at her, but for the first time since Casimir had returned, he wasn’t jealous. Leto put a hand on Casimir’s shoulder. “Welcome back, brother.”
Casimir reached for Leto as well, so that Leto was caught in the same embrace as Grace. “You’ve both given me so much, I who deserved nothing. Thank you. And I promise that I will spend the rest of my life atoning for how I hurt each of you.”
When Grace drew back, it was Leto who held on to Casimir a little longer. “You saved my life. Repeatedly. I owe you everything. I could not have withstood Julianna’s hand-blast. So thank you, Caz.”
When Leto finally let him go, Casimir wiped at his face and nodded. “I was just doing my job.” But he laughed, and Leto laughed with him.
Grace stood beside them, wondering at this long journey that had brought both amazing men into her life: Leto so deeply fractured by his service and Casimir twisted in his hedonism because of centuries of sexual slavery.
She was moved and content and shaking with the remnants of the obsidian power.
Leto must have felt her trembling, because he slipped both arms around her and held her close. You were brilliant, he sent. Thank you, my beautiful Grace. Thank you for saving him.
Yes, everything was changing.
* * *
When Casimir folded back to the observation deck, he used his Fourth ability and reached out to Patience. He wanted her near him, he wanted to speak with her, he wanted to lay his life before her.
Death had come to him and he’d been spared.
Casimir? He loved her voice in his head. How quickly the breh-hedden could make such a small thing as the voice of a woman seen like the most important element of his life, as though his next breath depended on it.
Will you come to me? he returned. There is something I want to say to you.
Of course.
He smiled. She hadn’t argued; she had simply said, “Of course.”
She arrived within minutes, wearing her jeans, just like his jeans. He used to wear leather, but no more. Leather had been all that he’d been allowed to wear for centuries, then later all he’d worn to sustain his seductions. Jeans were so down-to-earth.
She smiled. “You smell like wine, and it’s getting to me.” But her eyes narrowed and her head tilted. “Something has happened?”
“Your sister just saved my life.”
“Grace? How?”
He asked her to sit beside him on the sofa. For the next hour, he told her everything about his life, about his association with Grace, about the redemption pools, about serving Greaves, about Leto, even about his early centuries often chained to a bed and passed from master to master. Everything.
She touched his fingers gently and with compassion. Later she rubbed his arm. She shed tears with him. She kissed his cheek and neck. She embraced him.
She told him about her reckless life, her lack of focus, the dangerous choices she had made over the centuries, then her journey here on Third. “I’ve never felt I belonged anywhere. And now you’re here. I hardly know what to think.”
“Will you date me?” he asked. “I mean, the breh-hedden will be difficult to withstand anyway. But if it’s okay with you, I’d like to date you, go out with you. I don’t want to just hop into bed with you.”
“I want to apologize for the last time I saw you. I kind of panicked and left you standing at the observation deck.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m not good with relationships. I never was. I’ve often thought it was a warrior kind of thing. I don’t know.”
“All I’ve ever known is how to seduce a woman. But I don’t want that with you, even though I know the breh-hedden would make it so easy.”
She nodded. “Tell me about it. All I can think about right now is how to get you out of your jeans.”
He laughed, but his expression sobered almost as quickly. “I want you so badly right now that I ache. But I think it would be wonderful to wait. I want you to trust me as I’ve seen Grace put all her faith in Leto. I haven’t been trustworthy for most of my life. I think it’s something that has to be earned.
“Also, I intend to complete Beatrice’s redemption program. And that will take time.”
Patience took his hand. “Casimir, I’d like nothing better than to date you. And I will wait as long as you need me to wait before we share a bed.”
Casimir felt his heart open as it never had before. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He felt as though an angel had taken pity on him, had believed in him, and had given him a method by which he could transform.
Of course, in reality, that angel was Grace.
* * *
All the walls had come down. That was the truth that Grace knew as she slid into bed beside Leto. They were back in the villa guest room and wouldn’t return to the cabin until the Seattle Colony was safe from Greaves permanently.
